The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry will begin implementing a test for parasites in frozen and canned fish products to improve caution and vigilance over imported raw ingredients and canned fish products.
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ANTARA FOTO/FB Anggoro
Officers of Pekanbaru City Food and Drug Supervisory Center show the packaging of imported canned fish products that were proven to contain worms in Pekanbaru city, Riau, on Wednesday (21/3). Laboratory test results show three brands of imported canned fish products from China contained Anisakis worms. Importers were ordered to immediately recall all products from circulation to prevent people from consuming the contaminated goods.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry will begin implementing a test for parasites in frozen and canned fish products to improve caution and vigilance over imported raw ingredients and canned fish products.
Widodo Sumiyanto, head of the quality control center at the ministry’s National Agency for Fish Quarantine, Quality Control and Fishery Products Safety (BKIPM), said on Saturday (31/3) in Jakarta that in January, the agency had sent circulars to regional fish quarantine centers to implement tests on imported frozen and canned fish products to detect the presence of parasitic animals.
Additional tests were created earlier this year for parasites in mackerel after Peru released a notice on pieces of worms found in canned fish products entering the South American country. Based on the notice, the agency added a monitoring tool to increase its vigilance over imported frozen and canned fish products that entered Indonesia.
In February, the BKIPM notified the Chinese government and returned one container of 19.1 tons of imported canned fish, after local authorities found pieces of Anisakis parasitic nematodes in them. However, the dead worms were not deemed dangerous and the products did not need to be destroyed.
Widodo said that the Indonesian National Standards (SNI) did not require a test for parasites in frozen and canned fish. US and European food safety standards also did not require a similar test to ensure food safety. This was because the fish in canned products had generally undergone adequate freezing and sterilization, including washing, storing at below minus 20 degrees Celsius and cooking at 121 degrees Celsius, processes deemed adequate to kill the Anisakis sp. parasites.
ANTARA FOTO/Yusuf Nugroho
A member of the detective and crime force inspects a number of expired canned food products at a shopping center in Kudung, Central Java, on Saturday (31/3). The inspection was carried out in connection with the finding of 27 brands of canned fish containing parasitic worms by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) in order to anticipate the circulation of the tainted and expired food and beverage products.
Safe for consumption
The Anisakis sp. parasites live naturally in the ocean, attached to pelagic fishes, including mackerel. Consuming live Anisakis sp. worms is dangerous, which can trigger allergic reactions and can even be fatal.
“Worms are not considered dangerous in food safety management. Pieces of dead worms found in canned fish are safe to consume,” said Widodo.
Widodo added that the raw ingredients for canned mackerel were currently being imported from China, Korea and several ASEAN countries. Domestic canned fish products using imported mackerel were also marketed to the EU, the US, the Middle East and Africa. These canned fish exports followed the standards of the importing countries.
“We have not seen any rejection of Indonesian canned fish products in foreign markets because of Anisakis sp.,” he said.
The canning industry is also urged to minimize the potential for pieces of Anisakis sp. in canned fish products by improved caution in washing and cleaning the fish before processing them.
The discovery of the worms in canned fish has raised concerns among local producers of canned fish products. Supriyanto, spokesman of the Yala Samudra Company canned fish producer in Banyuwangi, East Java, said that there were concerns that the discovery would harm the market for all canned fish products, even though not all canned fish had worms in them. “Our factory produces only sardines. If the public think all canned fish have worms, we will be affected,” he said.
